AI-generated image
Beet kvass
Buriakovyi kvas (буряковий квас): lightly fermented beetroot juice for souring borscht or sipping
Before lemons and vinegar were easy to buy, Ukrainian cooks soured their borscht with beet kvass, a ruby-red brine made by leaving sliced raw beetroot in salted water for a few days. It is lightly fermented, so it contains no more than a negligible trace of alcohol, and it tastes earthy, salty and pleasantly sharp. In Poltava and Chernihiv villages a jar always stood by the stove; a splash went into the soup pot and a small glass was drunk in the morning as a tonic. Some families add a crust of rye bread to speed things up, which makes it no longer gluten-free. The mistake most people make is leaving the beetroot floating: anything above the brine can grow mould, so keep it weighed down. Discard any batch with fuzzy or coloured mould, a slimy texture or a rotten smell. Chef's tip: a few slices left in the jar from the previous batch start the next one in half the time.
- Total time
- 30 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 8
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ lb raw beetrootscrubbed, peeled and sliced 5 mm thick
- 8 ¼ cups waterboiled and cooled
- 1 ½ tbsp saltnon-iodised
- 2 cloves garlichalved
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp sugar
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Fresh ingredients (2)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Wash a 3 litre glass jar in hot soapy water and rinse it with boiling water.
5 minStep 3: Pack 2 ¼ lb raw beetroot, 2 cloves garlic and 1 bay leaf into the jar and pour over the brine, leaving 5 cm of headspace.
5 minStep 4: Weigh the beetroot under the brine with a small saucer or a water-filled zip bag so nothing floats. Cover with a clean cloth and an elastic band.
5 minStep 5: Leave at room temperature, 18–72°F, for 3–5 days. Skim off any white foam every day; it is ready when the liquid is deep red, slightly cloudy and tastes tangy rather than just salty.
10 minStep 6: Strain into clean bottles, close and refrigerate. Use within 2 weeks for borscht or drink in small glasses, chilled.
2 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 25 kcal
- Protein
- 1 g
- Carbs
- 6 g
- Fat
- 0 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does beet kvass take?
- About 30 minutes in total.
- How many people does it serve?
- 8 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
- What can I use instead of sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Power packApple, pear, kiwi and celery juice
A sweet, energising juice of apples, pears and kiwi fruit with a stick of celery, all used unpeeled for extra goodness. It's naturally sweet, so it needs no sugar. Serve well chilled.
Guava delightGuava, mango and banana drink
A thick, fragrant blend of ripe guava, mango and banana, boosted with a spoonful of guava powder from the health shop. The book calls it a modern-day vitality drink, drawing on guava's long use in traditional Indian medicine. Serve it well chilled; sieve it if you don't like the little guava seeds.
ŞalgamFermented purple carrot drink
Order an Adana kebab in its home city and a tall glass of şalgam arrives with it, deep purple, salty, sour and often fiery. It is made by fermenting black carrots with a little bulgur and salt for a week or more, and the sharpness clears the palate between bites of lamb and grilled onion. Street carts in Adana sell it by the glass in summer. This home version skips the separate bulgur-sour-dough stage the big producers use. Use non-iodised salt: iodised salt can stall the ferment. Chef's tip: taste from day 5; when it is sour enough to make you blink, strain and chill it, because it keeps fermenting at room temperature.
Turkish